The present invention is directed to a water floatation board and in particular to one with curved fins.
In the prior art, it is common to use side fins or stabilizers on wakeboards and kiteboards to provide extra control and maneuverability.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional water floatation board 10 with a center fin 3 and a pair of side fins 5. U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,479 to Redmon et al. shows one example of canted side fins. U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,961 shows another type of wakeboard with center fins. These patents are incorporated by reference in their entirety.
On boards where displacement is increased by increasing the plan width of the board, side fins are added to aid in directional control and tracking. As more directional control and tracking are required, the size of the side fins are increased in a depth direction. While improvements are realized with deeper fins, an increase in fin depth causes increases in drag, and the board moves more slowly through the water.
Accordingly, there exists a need to provide water floatation boards with both better control and less drag.
The present invention solves this need by providing a water floatation board that has side fins that offer an increase in holding power without increasing drag.
It is a first object of the present invention to provide an improved water floatation board.
Another object of the invention is to provide a water floatation board that uses curved side fins for improved control but without an increase in drag.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as a description thereof proceeds.
In satisfaction of the foregoing objects and advantages, the present invention provides improvements in water floatation board by the use of side fins, each employing a concave surface facing the board centerline, and a convex surface as the remaining and opposite fin surface. The concave surface holds more water than a conventional fin without increasing drag via a depth dimension increase. The surface facing a centerline of the board is the concave surface with the fin""s opposite surface being the convex one. These two surfaces merge together to form a leading edge, a trailing edge, and a tip.
The water floatation board can be any type of a board such as a wakeboard, a kiteboard, or the like. Each board can be equipped with one set of side fins on one end, or a set of side fins on each end. Further, the board can include a center fin disposed between opposing side fins.
The bottom surface of the board can be profiled in the vicinity of the side fins, if desired.